alcohol sale hours changing again:

more citywide, less in entertainment district?

Miami Beach City Commissioners are trying to find the right balance on alcohol sale hours in retail stores. After complaints about a pilot that pushed purchase hours back from 8 am to 10 am citywide, Commissioners were to consider an ordinance rolling hours back to 8 am. While they were generally in agreement this week that the City should return to the 8 am start time (ending at midnight), there is a new proposal to maintain the later start time in the MXE (mixed use entertainment) district which includes Ocean Drive and to further restrict sale times in the MXE by closing at 10 pm instead of midnight.

The ordinance with the MXE amendment now goes back to first reading in May with second and final reading in June.

So, to recap: If approved, citywide retail alcohol purchase hours would be 8 am to midnight and, in the MXE District, 10 am to 10 pm.

Commissioner Joy Malakoff proposed keeping the later hours in the MXE and Commissioner Ricky Arriola suggested the earlier close time. “I think that’s going to have a significant impact on the behavior that’s occurring within the MXE,” he said.

The pilot moving the hours to 10 am was to address concerns that children were seeing lines of homeless individuals outside liquor stores waiting for them to open at the same time they were going to school. The Fienberg-Fisher School on Washington Avenue is across the street from the MXE.